Images & photos can be used for more than a pretty decoration. For students who are right brain thinkers, they have an easier time learning through visuals. Images also have a direct effect on long-term memory. So here are some ideas for enhancing your lessons with images,
Set a mood at the beginning of a lesson
Inspire discussion of a topic
Illustrate concepts & to show examples
Extend language & common terms using subject-specific terminology
Stimulate students writing & enhancing creative & language skills
We’ve featured BeFunky before as an iPod app, but they were first a photo-editing website. Upload your photos & play with extensive amount of edits, effects, text, & frames. There is also a box of goodies to try & get a little artsy by turning your photos into works of art. One of my new favorite photo tools to use.
Besides doing the basic effects, this site can turn your photos into motivators, magazine covers, movie posters, & my favorite – trading cards. Simple to use, just add your picture & text. You can change the color & font of the text. On the trading cards, you can change the card colors & add symbols to organize them. You can either share or save the photos. You can also buy the products as posters, cards, or puzzles.
Lesson ideas,
Create anti-bullying posters using motivators
Classroom or school rules using motivators
Poem or quote posters using motivators
Students create projects describing themselves, characters, or historical figures using either motivators, magazine covers, movie posters or trading cards (inventors, characters from Harry Potter, important figures from World War II)
Create posters for book reports using either magazine covers or movie posters
Make trading cards for different mythological figures
Use trading cards for vocabulary words for all subject areas
Use trading cards for science facts (different types of volcanos, differences between animal species, chemical elements)
There are a lot of advance features from this free photo editor – effects, decorate, add animations, beautify, distort, adding layers, & getting geeked out with smart cutouts.
Need an image retouched or edited? GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a free graphics editor download. It is used for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition, & image authoring. It can be used as a simple paint program, or an expert quality photo retouching program.
GIMP is expandable & extensible. It is designed to be augmented with plug-ins & extensions to do just about anything. The advanced scripting interface allows everything from the simplest task to the most complex image manipulation to be easily completed. GIMP can be used to,
A popular online image editing tool. You can edit, touch up, design, & make collages by simply clicking & dragging from your computer. You can change things like contrast & size, to adding frames & special effects.
Offers a great set of image creation & editing tools. They are one of the top photo editing tools that we like use. There are 3 levels of editing - Pixlr Editor (Advanced), Pixlr Express (Efficient), & Pixlr-o-matic (Playful). Pixlr Editor is their more advanced image creation & editing tool. You can create drawings from scratch, & have options for uploading images or importing images from other places on the web. There is a large selection of creation & editing tools. There are also options for making multiple layer images, dozens of filter settings, & of course tools for cropping and resizing images. It is similar to Adobe Photoshop in the advance features available. Pixlr-o-matic is their simplest tool with the options of adding effects, overlays, & borders. You can crop a photo, but only into a square. You can't edit a photo further, but it is a good for a quick effect. Pixlr Express is their middle level option. The perfect blend between their advanced & playful levels. Do a variety of adjustments, effects, overlays, borders, & adjust them to the levels you want. You can also add stickers & text. It allows you to have fun being creative like Editior, but with ease like in Pixlr-o-matic.
Pixlr has two mobile apps available for iOS & Androids. Pixlr Express is their middle a lot like their Pixlr Express web option (free). It allows you simple editing options, presets & a chance to be more creative. Pixlr-o-matic is for a simple quick touch-up or resizing of an image ($0.99). Similar to their online version.
Picnik was once a very popular photo-editing tool, until they closed down last year. Ribbet! is built on the same platform & feels very familiar. Crop, resize, & add effects to your photos. Easy to use with just a few clicks transform your photos. If you sign up for an account, Ribbet! will store your editing history, so you can open up a photo you edited months ago & re-edit it into something new.
Image Editing
Table of Contents
BeFunky
We’ve featured BeFunky before as an iPod app, but they were first a photo-editing website. Upload your photos & play with extensive amount of edits, effects, text, & frames. There is also a box of goodies to try & get a little artsy by turning your photos into works of art. One of my new favorite photo tools to use.
BigHugeLabs
Besides doing the basic effects, this site can turn your photos into motivators, magazine covers, movie posters, & my favorite – trading cards. Simple to use, just add your picture & text. You can change the color & font of the text. On the trading cards, you can change the card colors & add symbols to organize them. You can either share or save the photos. You can also buy the products as posters, cards, or puzzles.
Lesson ideas,
FotoFlexer
There are a lot of advance features from this free photo editor – effects, decorate, add animations, beautify, distort, adding layers, & getting geeked out with smart cutouts.
GIMP
Need an image retouched or edited? GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a free graphics editor download. It is used for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition, & image authoring. It can be used as a simple paint program, or an expert quality photo retouching program.
GIMP is expandable & extensible. It is designed to be augmented with plug-ins & extensions to do just about anything. The advanced scripting interface allows everything from the simplest task to the most complex image manipulation to be easily completed. GIMP can be used to,
Photoshop Express Editor
A free web-based Photoshop that may not have a huge amount of features, but pictures look great when they are finished, especially with color pop.
PicMonkey
A popular online image editing tool. You can edit, touch up, design, & make collages by simply clicking & dragging from your computer. You can change things like contrast & size, to adding frames & special effects.
Pixlr
Offers a great set of image creation & editing tools. They are one of the top photo editing tools that we like use. There are 3 levels of editing - Pixlr Editor (Advanced), Pixlr Express (Efficient), & Pixlr-o-matic (Playful). Pixlr Editor is their more advanced image creation & editing tool. You can create drawings from scratch, & have options for uploading images or importing images from other places on the web. There is a large selection of creation & editing tools. There are also options for making multiple layer images, dozens of filter settings, & of course tools for cropping and resizing images. It is similar to Adobe Photoshop in the advance features available. Pixlr-o-matic is their simplest tool with the options of adding effects, overlays, & borders. You can crop a photo, but only into a square. You can't edit a photo further, but it is a good for a quick effect. Pixlr Express is their middle level option. The perfect blend between their advanced & playful levels. Do a variety of adjustments, effects, overlays, borders, & adjust them to the levels you want. You can also add stickers & text. It allows you to have fun being creative like Editior, but with ease like in Pixlr-o-matic.
Pixlr has two mobile apps available for iOS & Androids. Pixlr Express is their middle a lot like their Pixlr Express web option (free). It allows you simple editing options, presets & a chance to be more creative. Pixlr-o-matic is for a simple quick touch-up or resizing of an image ($0.99). Similar to their online version.
Ribbet!
Picnik was once a very popular photo-editing tool, until they closed down last year. Ribbet! is built on the same platform & feels very familiar. Crop, resize, & add effects to your photos. Easy to use with just a few clicks transform your photos. If you sign up for an account, Ribbet! will store your editing history, so you can open up a photo you edited months ago & re-edit it into something new.
Last Updated - February 2014